The present disclosure relates to solid or liquid pharmaceutical formulations comprising combinations of active agents such as anesthetics, anti-emetics, anti-hypertensives, anti-anxiety medications and/or analgesics, and methods for using the same for providing anesthesia by administering such compositions rectal administration, nasal administration (including via a nasal spray), oral spray administration, transdermal administration, and transmucosal administration including that utilizing a transmucosal gel. The formulations may also include slow release reversal agents that would counteract the initial anesthesia effect.
It is necessary in many cases to use local anesthesia, particularly via such routes of administration in the course of various surgical procedures, e.g., ophthalmic surgeries or urological interventions. For instance, when local anesthesia is employed during or prior to intraocular operations, the occurrences of pain, anxiety, peri-operative stress, nausea, agitation, vomiting and the like are less frequent, which will typically have a very beneficial effect on the surgical experience and reducing the number of intraocular complications such as bleeding, secretions, cardiac and/or pulmonary complications, etc. The severity of those complications when they do occur will also be less pronounced when local anesthesia is used.
Traditionally, an intravenous route is used to administer such medications. Alternatives to intravenous methods and therapies have been suggested and previously used for the treatment. In particular, oral administration of benzodiazepines, opioid analgesics, propofol, ketamine or etomidate utilizing the MAC procedure (monitored anesthesia care) has been suggested and tried, but no more than minimal to moderate improvement has been achieved by such methods. Therefore, there remains a need for better treatments of these disorders.
This patent specification discloses such pharmaceutical compositions suitable for anesthesiological applications that can achieve positive patient outcomes while being free of drawbacks and deficiencies of existing methods and formulations. Methods of fabricating and administering the same are also discussed.